Jessica Pugh is an American actress, singer, choreographer, and dancer living in Dallas Texas. She is currently performing with the Dallas Opera in the production, La Traviata shown at the Winspear. We caught up with Jessica to get her thoughts on pursuing happiness through the arts.

POH: How long have you been in theater?

JP: I started dancing when I was three. I became serious about theater when I was in high school and received scholarships for college in dance, choir and theater.

POH: What do you enjoy most about theater?

JP: I love how you can apply what you learn from the arts into other aspects of your life: discipline, organization, competing, memory and respect. Also I been able to live out some of my childhood fantasies! I've been a ballerina, a 20's flapper, a vampire, a gypsy, and a first class passenger on the Titanic to name a few.

POH: Have you ever had a time in your life where you've had to overcome adversity?

JP: Yes. I am very lucky that I have always had an awesome support system with my family and friends. The hardest time I ever went though I leaned mostly on the show I was working on. It gave me a purpose and a reason to keep going. POH: What is your favorite thing about the arts?

JP: The amazing talented people I have been so blessed to work with over the years and the friendships I have gained along the way.

POH: How do you think the arts are related to happiness?

JP: I think the arts are happiness! If you are in the show, you are happy doing something you love. If you are watching the show you are transported into a story, and become interested and involved with the characters. I've never seen anyone walk out of a show with a frown on their face!

POH: What would you say to all the people out there struggling to find their happiness?

JP: Try everything to find what makes you happy and what you love to do. We are all different, what makes someone else happy may not work for you and that's okay. It's what makes you unique!

There are all kinds of counselors. But like I’ve said before, the best kind are those that teach you to become your own counselor.

I have opinions. Everybody does. Some opinions of mine may be controversial. Some opinions everybody will like. Some no one will like. As human beings, raised in a world of experience and learning, we can’t help but to form opinions based on our individual relationships that occur throughout our lifetime. As counselors, it doesn’t matter whether we think we are right or wrong, what matters is that when engaging in the practice of counseling, we must always remind ourselves that what matters is the person sitting in front of us, and the way they formulate their own opinions.

We should always refrain from "telling" our clients anything as this serves to get us into trouble. What if we turn out to be wrong? What if we turn out to be right? Let’s analyze those for a moment.

If we give our clients a wrong piece of advice, this opens us up to liability. “You should just divorce that guy.” “You shouldn’t be friends with that person.” “You should save your money for this.” “You should spend your money on this.” Then we turn out to be incorrect and something bad happens. The divorcee is litigated against and ruinous credit ensues. The person you stop being friends with wins the lottery and doesn’t give you your previously promised share of the loot. You blow money on a Lambo only to crash it into the sea. Then what? We both look like fools, and mistrust in future advice is born as well as the counselors new tarnished credibility.

Let’s say your therapist is correct. What have you gained? Nothing more than a lucky happenstance, only you additionally created a situation where our clients become reliant on us for future advice. Same affect as feeding the stray cat. It’s ok to do that if you plan on taking the cat in and giving it a good home. But if you don’t intend to do that you’ve created an animal who counts on you for sustenance, and when that supply runs dry, you’ve also created an organism incapable of providing for itself. While some of us have big hearts and would like to just "take in" all our clients, this is not the right road to take.

A good counselor will not do this. A good counselor will recognize the importance of giving you the tools to find your own way in life, not matter if we think the path you are going down is disaster. It’s the freedom of the mind, conscious freedom, that we must embrace.

In the movie Inception, our team of heroes recognized that their target’s best chance at changing his thoughts were to make him think that he arrived at the conclusion himself. While us counselors are obviously not advocating infiltrating people’s dreams and going about enacting these changes in a nefarious way, the principle is the same.

Our client’s best chance at change is to arrive at that change of their own accord. Synthetic change, manufactured by an idealist busy-body of a counselor and driven by streams of advice peddling, will only see temporary relief. Lasting and meaningful change is done by strengthening the individual, and that is our best tool as professional counselors.